Superintendents’ and School Board Presidents’ Perceptions of the Purposes, Strengths and Weaknesses of Formal Superintendent Evaluations

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine superintendents’ and school board presidents’ perceptions of the purposes, strengths and weaknesses of formal superintendent evaluations, and the importance they attach to various superintendent functions. The superintendents and school board presidents who served as the subjects of this study were randomly selected from over one-third of the school districts of New York State. The findings indicated that, in general, the superintendents and school board presidents’ perceptions of the major purposes, the strengths and weaknesses of formal superintendent evaluation as well as the importance they attach to various superintendent functions were quite similar. However, there were a few notable exceptions. While almost two-thirds of the school board presidents indicated that improving the instructional leadership role of the superintendent was a major purpose of superintendent evaluation, only about one-eighth of the superintendents shared that view, and while only 16% of the school board presidents indicated that a major weakness of formal evaluation procedures for superintendents was that they require evaluation skills most board members do not possess, fully 43% of the superintendents saw this as a major weakness.